Best Rebirth of a Flop House

Tremont's Union Gospel Press Building

This complex of 15 buildings — originally built as a university, then long used as a Bible-printing plant run by a minister and staffed by nuns who lived in the connected dormitories — had already been neglected for years when ironworker, artist, and real estate speculator Joseph Scully bought it in 1987 for $74,000. "The Castle," as it was known, became part flop-house, part artist colony, part illicit party center, and all tragic decay. But in 2003, developers Meryl and Stavros Roberts bought it for $1.4 million and since then have spent $21 million more to turn it into the Tremont Place Lofts — luxury apartments that capitalize on the building's storied history and great location. What had been an eyesore and oddity for so many years is now a pillar of the new Tremont.